Verizon allows users to upgrade early for new iPhone release

We noticed earlier this morning on the Verizon site, the mobile service provider has shifted up the upgrade window for anyone with a contract end date prior to November 15, 2014. While not limited to iPhone 6 upgrades, Verizon specifically opened up the opportunity for more users to preorder all models of the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.

Of course, anyone that’s interested in taking advantage of the upgrade will be required to commit to a new two-year contract, choose any smartphone that’s currently offered by the carrier as well as pay a $30 upgrade fee to activate the new smartphone.

Interestingly, this seems to be a specific tactic to lock a Verizon customer into an upgrade to one the new iPhone 6 models without actually delivering the smartphone by the September 19 release date. At the time of this article’s publication, only three models of the iPhone 6 models (Gold 64GB, Gold 128GB and Silver 128GB) will be available to users at the end of the week. The remaining iPhone 6 models have delivery dates that extend into mid to late October. Additionally, the iPhone 6 Plus models are backordered to an even greater degree with delivery dates that extend into early November.

While this promotion won’t help any Apple users that upgraded to the iPhone 5S last year, it could help users that upgraded to the iPhone 5 late during 2012 due to high demand of that smartphone. It’s also likely that Verizon is offering this promotion to customers since some competitors are offering to pay early termination fees in order to encourage consumers to switch to a new carrier.

At this time, neither AT&T or Sprint have attempted to match this promotion in order to encourage more iPhone 6 preorders. Of course, both companies are also seeing significant supply issues for the larger of the two iPhone 6 models. According to dates listed on each company site, the 16GB model of the iPhone 6 Plus Space Gray is backordered to mid to late November on AT&T’s site and backordered approximately four to six weeks on Sprint’s site.